Hirohito biography | birthday, trivia | Japanese Royalty | Who2 Hirohito Biography Royalty Hirohito ruled Japan for more than six decades of the 20th century, during a period in which the nation aggressively pursued political dominance in Asia, withstood the devastation of World War II and rebuilt itself into a global economic powerhouse. Taking the official name Showa (“Enlightened Peace”), he began his long reign in 1926, with a divine claim to the throne as the 124th emperor in direct lineage to Amaterasu, a mythological sun goddess. At the close of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur , in charge of the U.S. occupation of Japan, kept Hirohito on the throne rather than charge him with war crimes, and Hirohito renounced his divinity and agreed to adopt a constitutional monarchy. During Hirohito’s lifetime he was often depicted as a benign and even passive bystander to events, more interested in marine biology than geopolitics.

Since his death in 1989, that image has been challenged by critics who argue that Hirohito encouraged the military aggression toward China in the early 1930s, participated in the planning of the attacks on Pearl Harbor (1941) and prolonged the war against the U.S. and Great Britain unnecessarily. After his death in 1989, Hirohito was succeeded by his son, the Emperor Akihito. Extra credit Hirohito, also known as Tenno Showa or Emperor Showa, was the son of Emperor Taisho and grandson of Emperor Meiji; the most recent addition to the royal line is Hirohito’s great-grandson Prince Hisahito , born in 2006… Hirohito’s 62-year reign was the longest in Japanese history. Hirohito - World War II - HISTORY.com Google Hirohito: The Early Years Hirohito, the eldest son of Crown Prince Yoshihito, was born on April 29, 1901, within the confines of the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo. According to custom, imperial family members were not raised by their parents.

Instead, Hirohito spent his early years in the care of first a retired vice-admiral and then an imperial attendant. From age 7 to 19, Hirohito attended schools set up for the children of nobility. He received rigorous instruction in military and religious matters, along with other subjects such as math and physics. In 1921, Hirohito and a 34-man entourage traveled to Western Europe for a six-month tour; it was the first time a Japanese crown prince had ever gone abroad. Did You Know? Hirohito’s son Akihito, the current emperor of Japan, broke with 1,500 years of tradition by marrying a commoner in 1959. Upon his return to Japan, Hirohito became regent for his chronically ill father and assumed the duties of emperor. In September 1923, an earthquake struck the Tokyo area, killing about 100,000 people and destroying 63 percent of the city’s houses. Rampaging Japanese mobs subsequently murdered several thousand ethnic Koreans and leftists, who were accused of setting fires and looting in the quake’s aftermath.

That December, Hirohito survived an assassination attempt, and the following month he married Princess Nagako, with whom he would have seven children. At around the same time, he ended the practice of imperial concubinage. Hirohito officially became emperor when his father died in December 1926. He chose Showa, which roughly translates to “enlightened harmony,” as his reign name. Hirohito as Emperor and the Rise of Japanese Militarism When Hirohito assumed the throne, a universal male suffrage law had just passed, and political parties were near the height of their prewar powers. However, a plunging economy, rising militarism and a series of political assassinations soon caused a crisis for the pro-democracy movement. Hirohito, who as emperor was the nation’s highest spiritual authority and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, essentially fired the prime minister in 1929. The next prime minister was shot and mortally wounded, and in 1932 yet another prime minister was assassinated by naval officers upset about a treaty limiting the number of Japanese warships.

From then on, almost all prime ministers came from the military rather than from the political parties, which were disbanded altogether in 1940. More political violence occurred in 1935, when a lieutenant colonel slashed a general to death with a samurai sword. And in 1936, over 1,400 soldiers mutinied in Tokyo, seizing the army ministry and murdering several high-ranking politicians. Meanwhile, Japan’s conflict with China was growing. In 1931, Japanese army officers initiated the so-called Manchurian Incident by detonating a railway explosion and blaming it on Chinese bandits. They then used the event as an excuse to take over Manchuria in northeastern China and set up a puppet state there. Excursions into other areas of the country soon followed, and by 1937 war had broken out. That winter, the Japanese army massacred an estimated 200,000 civilians and prisoners of war in and around the city of Nanking. Rape is thought to have been commonplace, and women throughout Japanese-controlled regions of Asia were brought in to serve as prostitutes.

Hirohito did not condone the invasion’s more repugnant aspects, but—perhaps because he worried the military would make him abdicate—he failed to punish those responsible. He also sanctioned the use of chemical warfare and the uprooting of peasants. Japan’s Involvement in World War II In September 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, in which they agreed to assist one another should any of them be attacked by a country not already involved in the war. Japan sent troops to occupy French Indochina that same month, and the United States responded with economic sanctions, including an embargo on oil and steel. A little over a year later, Hirohito consented to the decision of his government to battle the Americans. On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes bombarded the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii , destroying or crippling 18 ships and killing almost 2,500 men. The United States declared war one day later. Over the next seven months, Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies, British Singapore, New Guinea, the Philippines and a number of other locations in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

But the tide started turning at the June 1942 Battle of Midway and soon after at Guadalcanal. By mid-1944, Japan’s military leaders recognized that victory was unlikely, yet the country did not stop fighting until after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following August. On August 15, 1945, Hirohito made a radio broadcast announcing Japan’s surrender. Life for Hirohito After the War A postwar constitution preserved the monarchy but defined the emperor as a mere symbol of the state. All political power went to elected representatives. Unlike many among his top military brass, Hirohito was not indicted as a war criminal, in part because U.S. authorities feared it could throw their occupation into chaos. From 1945 to 1951, Hirohito toured the country and oversaw reconstruction efforts. The American occupation ended in 1952, after which Hirohito served largely in the background while Japan went through a period of rapid economic growth. He died on January 7, 1989, having spent nearly 64 years on the throne—the longest imperial reign in Japanese history.

To this day, Hirohito’s wartime record remains a subject of much debate. Tags Hirohito Biography (Royalty) Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan Best known as: Emperor of Japan, 1926-1989 Hirohito ruled Japan for more than six decades of the 20th century, during a period in which the nation aggressively pursued political dominance in Asia, withstood the devastation of World War II and rebuilt itself into a global economic powerhouse. Taking the official name Showa ("Enlightened Peace"), he began his long reign in 1926, with a divine claim to the throne as the 124th emperor in direct lineage to Amaterasu, a mythological sun goddess. At the close of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur , in charge of the U.S. occupation of Japan, kept Hirohito on the throne rather than charge him with war crimes, and Hirohito renounced his divinity and agreed to adopt a constitutional monarchy. During Hirohito's lifetime he was often depicted as a benign and even passive bystander to events, more interested in marine biology than geopolitics.

Since his death in 1989, that image has been challenged by critics who argue that Hirohito encouraged the military aggression toward China in the early 1930s, participated in the planning of the attacks on Pearl Harbor (1941) and prolonged the war against the U.S. and Great Britain unnecessarily. After his death in 1989, Hirohito was succeeded by his son, the Emperor Akihito. Extra credit: Hirohito, also known as Tenno Showa or Emperor Showa, was the son of Emperor Taisho and grandson of Emperor Meiji; the most recent addition to the royal line is Hirohito’s great-grandson Prince Hisahito , born in 2006… Hirohito’s 62-year reign was the longest in Japanese history. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Advertisement Advertisement Hirohito Biography (Royalty) Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan Best known as: Emperor of Japan, 1926-1989 Hirohito ruled Japan for more than six decades of the 20th century, during a period in which the nation aggressively pursued political dominance in Asia, withstood the devastation of World War II and rebuilt itself into a global economic powerhouse. Taking the official name Showa ("Enlightened Peace"), he began his long reign in 1926, with a divine claim to the throne as the 124th emperor in direct lineage to Amaterasu, a mythological sun goddess. At the close of World War II, General Douglas MacArthur , in charge of the U.S. occupation of Japan, kept Hirohito on the throne rather than charge him with war crimes, and Hirohito renounced his divinity and agreed to adopt a constitutional monarchy. During Hirohito's lifetime he was often depicted as a benign and even passive bystander to events, more interested in marine biology than geopolitics.

Since his death in 1989, that image has been challenged by critics who argue that Hirohito encouraged the military aggression toward China in the early 1930s, participated in the planning of the attacks on Pearl Harbor (1941) and prolonged the war against the U.S. and Great Britain unnecessarily. After his death in 1989, Hirohito was succeeded by his son, the Emperor Akihito. Extra credit: Hirohito, also known as Tenno Showa or Emperor Showa, was the son of Emperor Taisho and grandson of Emperor Meiji; the most recent addition to the royal line is Hirohito’s great-grandson Prince Hisahito , born in 2006… Hirohito’s 62-year reign was the longest in Japanese history. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. American Experience . MacArthur .

People &amp; Events | Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989) | PBS People & Events Emperor Hirohito (1901-1989) If ever a picture was worth a thousand words, it was the image of General MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito standing side by side during their historic first meeting on September 27, 1945. In it, a casually dressed MacArthur towers over the stiff, formally attired Emperor. "What does it say?" asks historian Carol Gluck. "It says, I'm MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, and I'm in charge." For millions of Japanese, it brought home in an entirely new way the notion that they had lost the war. The man known as Tenno to his subjects and Hirohito to the rest of the world ranks as one of the most enigmatic figures of the 20th century. The ambiguity surrounding his role in leading Japan to war makes simple judgments of him all but impossible. And the cultural barriers may be even more formidable than the factual ones: to many of his subjects, the "emperor of heaven" was not really a man at all, but the living embodiment of the Japanese people.

Whatever one's perspective, his life offers a powerful lens through which to view Japan's tumultuous history in this century. Installed as Crown Prince at the age of fifteen, Hirohito assumed the "Chrysanthemum Throne" in 1926 with the death of his father, the Emperor Yoshihito (now known as the Taisho Emperor; with his death, Hirohito's reign took the name Showa). Because his father had been a weak and sickly man, Hirohito ruled more in the shadow of his grandfather, the great Emperor Meiji , who presided over Japan's late-19th-century opening up to the West. Even before he assumed the throne, Hirohito reflected the same fascination with the West, particularly after a six-month tour of Europe in 1921, where he picked up a life-long taste for Western food and clothes. This is the Hirohito the world also saw in 1975, when he finally realized his dream of visiting the United States, where he met John Wayne, was received by President Ford, and acquired a Mickey Mouse watch he wore for years.

In between, however, he presided over one of the largest and most costly military ventures in human history. In the decades after the war, the accepted version of events held that Hirohito was essentially a pawn of the militarists who gained control of the government shortly after he took the throne. MacArthur, convinced he needed the Emperor to run a smooth occupation, played no small part in establishing this version. With Hirohito's quiet manner, love of haiku and marine biology, the image of the peace-loving man who was powerless to stop his country's murderous expansion took hold. But in the decade since his death, a more open inquiry into what happened has convinced a number of historians that this version, while partially true, is far from accurate. Hirohito's ability to thwart the militarists was certainly limited -- he was more a symbol of the state than an actual ruler -- but he was not nearly as blameless as his defenders would have it. The occupation official and historian Richard B.

Finn sums it up this way: "The decisions that led to the war in 1941 were made unanimously by the cabinet, the emperor was fully informed about them, they were often made in his presence, he knew in advance of the plan to attack Hawaii, and he even made suggestions about how to carry it out." On August 15, 1945, the Japanese people heard the voice of their emperor for the first time, and while he avoided using the word "surrender," his meaning was clear. Although "the voice of the crane" was heard far too late -- Japan had lost 2.3 million soldiers and 800,000 civilians in the war -- in the difficult days ahead the emperor did provide a much-needed measure of national unity.

Accepting MacArthur's implicit bargain -- help me and I'll keep you from being tried as a war criminal -- Hirohito did his part to remake Japan along an American model, backing the new constitution, "renouncing" his divinity, and trying gamely to play the part of "Japan's first democrat." By the time his 62-year reign came to an end, Japan had risen like a Phoenix out of the postwar rubble to become one of the world's richest countries. It was in demonstrating this remarkable capacity for change that Hirohito truly became the living symbol of his people. Matt's Today in History: Japanese Emperor Showa Dies, January 7, 1989 Sunday, January 07, 2007 Japanese Emperor Showa Dies, January 7, 1989 Today in 1989, Emperor Showa died in Tokyo, Japan. Known during his life as Emperor Hirohito, he was the 124th Emperor of Japan and reigned during the most challenging years of the 20th century. His role as a national leader during the Second World War is still a source of controversy and debate.

The future emperor was born at Aoyama Palace in Tokyo on April 29, 1901. He was the eldest son of the future Emperor Taisho and was the first future Japanese monarch in several hundred years whose mother was his father's official wife. As a child, his title was Prince Michi. His grandfather died when he was 12, making his father the emperor and him the heir apparent. He formally assumed the title of crown prince in November, 1916, when he was just 15. The future Emperor Showa became regent of Japan in November, 1921, due to his father's increasingly ill health. During that same year, he embarked on a six-month tour of Europe, making him the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad. It was said that he developed a great fondness for the British during this trip. Emperor Taisho died on December 25, 1926. The Taisho era ended and a new era was proclaimed: Showa, meaning enlightened peace.

The new emperor was crowned on November 10, 1928 and was known during his lifetime as Emperor Hirohito, although this name was never used by the Japanese people. Instead, he was termed His Majesty the Emperor, or just His Majesty. Although his era carried the name of enlightened peace, the first 20 years of his reign would prove to be something else entirely. The new emperor held a delicate position with regard to Japan's government. The nation had a prime minister, cabinet and Diet, but the military had established veto power over cabinet positions earlier in the century. By 1932, there was essentially no civilian control over the Japanese military machine; moderates were either muted or pushed aside and those who stood up to senior military officials were frequently killed. With this in mind, the question that has plagued historians over the past 60 years is how much official power the emperor wielded in terms of the decisions taken which led to the invasion of China and Japan's entry into the Second World War. Some historians place the emperor at the center of the decisions to invade Manchuria in 1931 and the use chemical weapons against the Chinese.

He was certainly reluctant to join Germany and Italy as an Axis Power, but he restrained his protests after Germany overran much of western Europe in the spring of 1940. In September, 1941 when a draft war plan against the Allies in the Pacific was presented to His Majesty, he supposedly scolded his army chief of staff, saying that the plans were overly optimistic. It was clear that the emperor supported diplomacy over war, but the pro-military government supported the use of diplomacy only as a facade to mask war preparations. While the emperor was seemingly hesitant about the war, when it came time to chose a new prime minister, a hard-line General named Hideki Tojo was picked for the job. One of Tojo's first actions was to seek the emperor's consent for a war against the US, Great Britain and other colonial powers in the Pacific, which His Majesty ultimately gave. While the specific truth of events has been lost to history, there is some evidence that the information given to the Imperial Palace became more and more censored as the war turned against the Japanese.

The Japanese public was certainly kept in the dark until late in 1944, when American B-29s over Tokyo and other cities proved that the war was being lost. The emperor sought a diplomatic channel via the Soviet Union in the spring of 1945, which was not at war with Japan at that time. The Allies were demanding unconditional surrender, something that the government in Tokyo could not bear. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945, forced the surrender issue into the light. With the Soviet declaration of war that same month, it was clear that Japan had no friends and no hope of a negotiated settlement to the war. On August 15, His Majesty made a recording that was broadcast to the Japanese people. It was the first time the Japanese public had heard his voice. He informed his public that the nation was going to surrender unconditionally and that they must be prepared to "accept the unacceptable". After the formal Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, there were calls for the emperor to stand trial for alleged war crimes. Among those who supported such a move was US President Harry Truman.

But General Douglas MacArthur, who was the commander of the occupation of Japan, was insistent that His Majesty not stand trial. He viewed the emperor's position as a symbol of national unity, the destruction of which could lead to anarchy. In the end, Emperor Showa was forced to reject the concept of his own divinity. He and all future emperors became, in the eyes of the nation, mortal beings. The emperor was made a constitutional monarch in 1946. Emperor Showa seemingly embraced his new role as a public figure. He and his family made many public appearances over the course of the next 40 years and he played a crucial role in rebuilding Japan's image around the world. He also took time to delve into his personal passion, marine biology. A laboratory was built in the Imperial Palace from which he wrote several published works in the field. Emperor Showa died on the morning of January 7, 1989 from complications related to cancer of the small intestine. He is buried at the Imperial Mausoleum next to his father. His son, Crown Prince Tsugu, is the current Emperor Akihito.

Posted by The Takao Club: Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 Visit to Takao The Takao Club Crown Prince Hirohito's 1923 Visit to Takao Taiwan had been a Japanese colony since 1895. During the month of April 1923, Crown Prince Hirohito, heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne, made an Imperial Visit to this first colony of Japan. Harry A Franck, in his 1924 book Glimpses of Japan and Formosa, recounts how there stood on the hill overlooking the new and old towns of Takao an 'unoccupied group of unpainted wooden buildings specially erected to house the prince regent during a recent two-day visit, which are so sacred that they cannot even be photographed'. Crown Prince Hirohito (April 29, 1901 - January 7, 1989) was later to reign over the Japanese Empire as the Showa Emperor from 1926 to 1989. He was known in the West by his given name Hirohito (he had no surname). He was the 124th Emperor of Japan.

His reign was the longest of all Japanese emperors, yet he began it as a divine being and ended it as a mere mortal. His formal investiture as Crown Prince took place on 2 November 1916, following the death of his grandfather, the Emperor Meiji, on July 30, 1914. The Meiji Shrine, which was not completed until 1920, had a torii (main gate) constructed of Taiwan cypress. The shrine was destroyed during the fire-bombing of World War II, but the main torii was rebuilt with Taiwan cypress. On November 29, 1921, he became Prince Regent of Japan, in place of his ailing father, the Taisho Emperor who suffered from 'mental incapacity'. Hirohito (April 29, 1901 - January 7, 1989) It is believed that his father had suffered from accidental lead-poisoning whilst suckling from his wet-nurse. At that time Japanese women commonly used a lead compound to whiten their skins.

The extent of the Taisho Emperor's incapacity was clear when, at the 1913 opening of the Diet, he famously rolled his prepared speech into a telescope and stared at the assembly through it instead of reading it. After 1919, he undertook no official duties and Hirohito subsequently, on 29 November 1921, became the Prince Regent. In 1922, Prince Regent Hirohito had undertaken a six month tour of the United Kingdom and five other European countries, thus becoming the first Japanese crown prince to travel abroad. The Imperial Cruiser Kongo In 1923, Hirohito set off to tour the Japanese colony of Taiwan, a voyage his father, the then Crown Prince Yoshihito, had planned in 1911 but never undertaken. The Crown Prince embarked on the Imperial Cruiser Kongo at Yokosuka, the main Japanese naval base located to the south of Yokohama, on 12 April 1923. He was accompanied by HIH Prince Hiroyoshi Fushimi and had an escort of two other warships of the Japanese Imperial Navy.

After arriving at Keelung (Kelung) on 16 April, Crown Prince Hirohito and his entourage proceeded directly to Taipei (Taihoku), where the governor-general's residence and the principal colonial offices were located. At Taipei, Crown Prince Hirohito was received by Baron Den Kenjiro, the Governor-General of Taiwan. Baron Den Kenjiro (shown on the right) ruled Taiwan from 29 October 1919 - 2 September 1923, and was her first civilian governor-general. Den was not only a statesman and bureaucrat, he was also an industrialist, being one of the founders in 1911 of what was to become Nissan Motors. Indeed, Baron Den Kenjiro's governorship of the island colony ushered in a period of enlightened civilian rule and liberalisation that was to last until 1936, when Japan was to become dominated by militarism. Many consider that the rise in militarism was a consequence of an education system that stressed absolute loyalty to a hierarchical system. Baron Den Kenjiro (b. 1855 ï¿½ d.

1930) Upon his appointment, Den had been given the mission of assimilating the Taiwanese as Japanese subjects, especially through the medium of the education system and he thus carried out an extensive programme of building new schools. It was in this context of assimilating the Taiwanese as Japanese subjects that Crown Prince Hirohito's visit to the colony took place. Hirohito's first night on Taiwanese soil was spent not at Taipei but to the west, near Tamsui, at a place called Kappan-zan [角板山, Chiaopanshan]. Japanese Postcard depicting the View from Kappanzan The English consular official and travel-writer Owen Rutter had recorded his visit to Kappan-zan during the year 1921 in his book Through Formosa. He relates that 'Kappanzan stands on a plateau high above the Tamsui, now nothing but a mountain torrent. ... We were lodged in the Government rest-house, which overlooked the deep-cleft valley and was built in the usual Japanese style. Close by was the palace which had been built some time previously for an expected visit of the Crown Prince, which, however, did not take place'.

Kerr, writing many years later and with erroneous dates, recounts that Hirohito spent a single night at Kappanzan. Kerr laconically notes that the 'quasi-Western house (had been) built especially for the occasion, at great expense'. He adds that the 'Japanese in Formosa were suitably awed by the visit; the Formosans were not'. Hirohito made his tour through Taiwan by rail using a carriage (No SA 4101) that had been built out of teak, Chinese juniper and cypress for his father in 1912, yet never used. (see photograph on right). The interior of the carriage used by Crown Prince Hirohito was divided into a living-room area, a bedroom and a toilet. Each area was outfitted with electrical appliances, including electric lights and wooden, double-bladed fans. This luxuriously appointed carriage has recently been restored by the Taiwan Railway Administration. By clicking on the image you can view the restored carriage.

At each station along the route, Hirohito would get off the train, escorted by the regional governor and followed by attendants from the Imperial Household, the Governor-General, the Taiwan Army Commander, the Secretary of General Affairs of the Government-General, the local police chief and so forth, clearly signifying the rigid political and social hierarchy of the Japanese Empire. During his journey by train through Taiwan, Hirohito had sighted Mount Sylvia [雪山, Hsueh-shan] and graciously renamed it Tsugitaka-yama. Crown Prince Hirohito arrived at Takao Station, the southern terminal of the railway traversing Taiwan, on 21 April 1923. The old station still remains, though it is no longer used for passenger traffic, at the eastern end of Lin-hai 2nd Road in Ku-shan District. Upon arrival Crown Prince Hirohito was driven through the recently-reclaimed and newly-constructed Shinhama district of Takao, passing through the ceremonial arch that had been built for the occasion of his Imperial Visit. His motorcar then ascended the lower slopes of Takao Mountain to arrive at the Reception Hall.

The Reception Hall had been constructed entirely of the finest Taiwanese timber to house the Crown Prince. The pavillion-like building and its interior show a superb simplicity. The simplicity of the Reception Hall on Takao Mountain stood in contrast to the grandiose splendour by which the Japanese rulers sought to impress their Taiwanese subjects. During his stay at Takao Crown Prince Hirohito made a visit to the Minato Primary School that lay in the new town below the Reception Hall where he was staying. A report by the school principal, Shoji Unrinin, in the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo of 25 April 1923, serves to express the significance of Hirohito's visit: "More than half of the 52 Japanese pupils who were granted this inspection of their class are born in Taiwan and have never seen the Imperial Palace. Another 900 students in this school are in the same position. On this occasion, however, they were able to see the Crown Prince from close by. I am certain that the students have been instilled with a great respect towards the Imperial Family, and were deeply impressed by our future Emperor.

I am convinced that this visit will have a great impact on the spiritual education of our students." Minato (now, Ku-shan) Primary School During the time of his stay at Takao, Crown Prince Hirohito also visited the massive new sugar mill that had been built in 1909 by the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company at Heito (屏東, Pingtung). The story is told of the Grove of Auspicious Bamboos. When Hirohito's visit was first planned in early 1923, Mr Yamamoto, the President of the Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company, honoured with the prospect of an Imperial visit to his company, planned a cool arbour for the Crown Prince to rest. The arbour was to be 'pillared with verdant male bamboo, which is a special product of Taiwan, and roofed with (fresh) native miscanthus'. The finest bamboos were cut from the forests of central Taiwan and duly erected at Heito. However, Hirohito's visit was delayed by some weeks and Mr Yamamoto feared lest the bamboo lose all its verdure before the Crown Prince's arrival. Yet, a few days before Crown Prince Hirohito's arrival, the bamboo burst into life again.

On the actual day of Hirohito's visit the bamboo pillars had fresh green sprouts several inches in length, which delighted the prince. In later years this Grove of Auspicious Bamboos became venerated as the Zuichikurin Memorial. Taiwan Sugar Manufacturing Company at Heito In October 1910 H.I.H. Prince Kanin Kotohito had made the first Imperial visit to Taiwan since the official end of hostilities in 1895. This visit, ostensibly to mark the completion of the Keelung-Takao railway, also signalled the advent of peace throughout the island colony. The southern point of the railroad at Takao was of major significance to the Japanese in accordance with their 'Look South' policy. Prince Kanin arrived at Takao aboard the SA 4102, the first Imperial Train, whose number had been demoted in deference to Hirohito's use of the second that had been designated SA 4101. During his brief visit he decried the absence of a suitable temple for the use of then sizeable number of Japanese immigrants living in the ShaoChuanTou area of Takao.

The Imperial Prince commanded that a family shrine then standing on the side of Takao Mountain be rebuilt as a Japanese Shinto temple. The temple, called the Kotohira Shrine [金刀比羅], was duly built in 1911 and was for praying to Omononushi-no-Mikoto [大物主命] , the Japanese god of the sea, and to the 12th century Japanese Emperor Sutoku [崇德天皇]. We can be certain that Crown Prince Hirohito paid his respects at this shrine on his way to climb Takao Mountain. For, two years after his visit, a memorial was constructed higher up the Takao Mountain to commemorate Crown Prince Hirohito's climb up the bluff. The memorial (shown on the right) was built a few hundred metres above the Kotohira Shrine, and now lies within a restricted military area. Crown Prince Hirohito stayed at the tranquil Reception Hall upon the slopes of Takao Mountain on the nights of 21 and 22 April 1923.

As the 29th of April was to be the Crown Prince's birthday, it was to decided to honour his presence by renaming Takao Mountain as Longevity Mountain (Kotobuki-yama [壽山] (Shou-shan); oddly, the name it still enjoys. On 23 April 1923, Crown Prince Hirohito departed aboard the Imperial Cruiser Kongo to make an inspection of the important naval base at Makung in the Pescadores (Peng-hu). After returning to Taipei on 24 April, Hirohito visited the hot springs at Peitou on 25 April 1923. The original structure had been built in 1913 in the style of a traditional Japanese bathhouse. However, in anticipation of Hirohito's visit an additional residential wing was added to the earlier building, this time in the style of an Edwardian country house. The new building was subsequently opened to the public and was deemed the largest public bathhouse in the Japanese Empire. Crown Prince Hirohito handed his Imperial Notice to Governor-General Den Kenjiro and departed from Keelung aboard the Kongo on 26 April 1923.

Hirohito returned aboard the Kongo to Yokosuka on 1 May 1923, thus completing the only trip that a Japanese Crown Prince was ever to make to a Japanese colony. Events in the year after the return of Crown Prince Hirohito hardly augured well. On 1 September 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake was to shatter Japan proper, killing some 100,000 people and levelling vast areas, particularly in the capital city of Tokyo whose wooden buildings were consumed by the resultant fires. Although the city was rebuilt drawing on the then massive timber reserves of Taiwan, some 20 years later it was to be destroyed again; this time by American incendiary bombs. In the aftermath of the Kanto earthquake, the military authorities saw an opportunity to annihilate the communist movement in Japan. The backlash culminated in an assassination attempt on the Prince Regent Hirohito on 27 December 1923. The Crown Prince survived and was married within the month to Princess Nagako. They had seven children, with their eldest son, Prince Tsugu, being the current (2005) Japanese Emperor Akihito.

In December, 1926, after the death of his father Yoshihito known as the Taisho Emperor, he succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne and was entitled Showa (Enlightened Peace). The new Emperor Showa had the particular distinction of being the first Japanese monarch in several hundred years whose biological mother was his predecessor's official wife. The Showa Emperor, known in the West as Hirohito, in 1928 In the year following Hirohito's enthronement as the Emperor Showa, it was decided at Takao to set up a Takao Temple Construction Association to raise funds to build a more fitting shrine to the Imperial Family. The new Takao Temple, completed in 1929, was built on three levels with a spacious flight of steps leading up to it; these steps survive today. The postcard on the left shows Kotobuki Mountain(Shou-shan) around 1935. The steps and the torii (ceremonial arch) on the hill still stand today.

Despite other assassination attempts and the loss of his divine status after the Second World War, Emperor Hirohito died peacefully on 7 January 1989, at the age of 87. Some sources: A more complex portrayal of Emperor Hirohito | The Japan Times A more complex portrayal of Emperor Hirohito Special To The Japan Times Aug 5, 2015 SHARE Emperor Hirohito, who is posthumously known as Emperor Showa, had a procession of public images during his long reign from 1926 to 1989 — though none were quite accurate. There was the pre-1945 Emperor — stern and remote on his white horse — who was viewed as a living god by the Japanese masses and leader of the Japanese war machine by his enemies abroad. After World War II, Emperor Showa transformed into the constitutional symbol of a new, more democratic Japan, who attended faithfully to his endless ceremonial duties while diligently studying marine biology. In his later years, especially to younger Japanese with no experience of the war, he became an eccentric grandfather figure enjoying himself at Disneyland and waving to the crowds at New Year’s celebrations.

Masato Harada’s “Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Hi” (“The Emperor in August”), released almost a week before the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, presents an entirely different image of Emperor Showa based on the writings of historian Kazutoshi Hando and Harada’s own research. In the desperate days of August 1945, this Emperor (Masahiro Motoki) plays a key role in bringing the war to an end, even as young military hotheads mount a coup to thwart his Aug. 15 surrender announcement and fight the American invaders on home soil. Kihachi Okamoto made a film with the same Japanese title in 1967 (released internationally as “Japan’s Longest Day”) that was also based on a book written by Hando (but published under the name of well-known social critic and journalist Soichi Oya as “editor”). At a multiplex in Tokyo where Harada’s new version was scheduled to open on Aug. 8, I asked him why he felt compelled to remake it. “(Okamoto’s film) was not faithful to the book,” he says in fluent English, honed during his six years as an aspiring filmmaker in Los Angeles.

“He could not show the Emperor face on, only in long shots or from behind. So he could not show serious discussions in the Imperial Council about important issues that involved both Emperor Hirohito and the ‘Big Six,’ ” Harada says, referring to Japan’s six supreme civilian and military leaders in 1945, including Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and War Minister Korechika Anami. “I wanted to go more deeply into the characters this time, staying faithful to the book.” Another reason for a remake, Harada adds, was that new research had been published since the ’67 film, including a book by Hando titled “Seidan: Tenno to Suzuki Kantaro” (“Imperial Decision: The Emperor and Kantaro Suzuki”) that focuses on Emperor Showa’s decision to accept the surrender conditions laid down by the Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945. In Harada’s film this decision is not immediately approved. The Big Six are deeply divided over the surrender question, with Suzuki (Tsutomu Yamazaki) firmly in the peace camp and Imperial loyalist Anami (Koji Yakusho) among the bitter-enders.

But seeing Emperor Showa’s strong desire for peace, Anami changes his mind. With the backing of Suzuki and Anami, the Emperor feels emboldened to announce his decision for peace to the Imperial Council. But if Emperor Showa had truly wanted peace, his critics ask, why didn’t he issue a similar Imperial decision before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? Harada counters that the Emperor lacked supporters in 1941, but found them by 1945 in Suzuki and Anami. “These three worked together and stopped the war,” Harada says. “Otherwise, the Emperor was not so powerful during the war — that’s how I understand it.” What finally motivated Harada to remake “Japan’s Longest Day,” however, was “The Sun,” Aleksandr Sokurov’s 2006 drama about Emperor Hirohito in the concluding days of the war. Harada saw the film at a theater in Ginza, a venue chosen “because the distributor was afraid of right-wing attacks,” he says. “It was the first time for Japanese to see the Emperor as a leading character,” he adds.

While praising veteran character actor Issey Ogata’s performance as Emperor Showa as “a courageous effort,” Harada says he also found it frustrating. “He was just mimicking the Emperor’s mannerisms,” he explains. “It wasn’t even true. In 1945 (the Emperor) didn’t have those kind of mannerisms. The object was to make him look ridiculous.” Harada wanted to film an Emperor who was truer to life. At the same time, couldn’t Motoki’s youthful Emperor, as well as Tori Matsuzaka’s fiery Maj. Kenji Hatanaka, who leads the failed coup, become inspirations to the same flag-waving neo-nationalists who long for the militarized, Emperor-worshipping Japan of old? “This is an anti-war film,” Harada says bluntly. “Its message is that only because we lost the army could we save the country. … Some right-wing politicians or young people might look at Maj. Hatanaka and others and say they’re kakkoii (cool), but this movie is a double-edged sword,” he says, meaning that none of its main characters are purely good or evil. “I was fair to the Maj.

Hatanaka character even though I don’t agree with him. I can’t deny that some might take advantage of that approach … but people will take the film whichever way they want.” Harada’s hopes “The Emperor in August” becomes a success not only because it would be good for his bank account and distributors’ bottom lines. “It would change industry thinking,” he explains. “They’ll think, ‘We should make more films for mature audiences and not be afraid of taking chances.’ “ He confesses, though, that he did not want to risk upsetting right-wingers by depicting Emperor Showa’s vexed relationship with his mother, Dowager Empress Teimei. “She wanted to fight to the end, so Hirohito had a hard time with her,” Harada says. “And she didn’t get along with Empress Nagako, Hirohito’s wife. That would make an interesting film for the future.” Photos Click to enlarge Keywords

Question: The Emperor Showa was known by what name during his lifetime?
Answer: Hirohito